Cross Country round up from Parliament Hill

Saturday saw a strong showing from the club at the London Youth Games and the London Cross country championships held on the muddy slopes of Parliament Hill. Our young athletes had another good day, and there were some good individual performances from our seniors, despite a disappointing lack of team medals.  This was another great day for our young athletes who were competing against athletes from all 33 boroughs in the London Youth Games Cross Country Races, Parliament Hill.

The outstanding youth athlete performances were well spread over the 4 categories that make up the Under 15 and Under 17 age groups.The first race of the day was the Under 11 boys where both our runners had superb runs, with Tom Carter finishing 12th and Ollie Selby 17th.  

For the Under 15 Girls Lucy Carter had a strong performance and placed 9th representing Haringey.

The next race, the Girls U17s saw a Heathside athlete first to the top of the hill, Yanna’s reasoning being ‘I did not start fast I just wondered where the others had got to’! Despite this probably too fast start (anyone who ran the uphill start will know what I mean) she held on well for 20th place, but one of the people who overtook her was Lily Beckford who had the run of the day to finish 8th.

In the Under 15 Boys race Johnny Naylor produced his best race of the season so far and also gained a top ten position placing 9th, and in the Under 17 Men's race James Wooldridge had a great run placing 17th.

17/11/12 London Youth Games Cross Country Races, Parliament Hill

Under 11 Girls

28th  Sonia Harizi London Borough of Haringey 00:07:15
104th  Fayth James London Borough of Islington 00:09:54

Under 13 Girls

78th Natasha Peake 00.09.32
92nd Ruby Christian-Muldoon 00.09.42
93rd Maya Raykov  00:09:42
109th Molly Sharmman 00.10.00 
124th Kitty Pinder 00.10.11 
227th Condacy Greer 00:19:02

Under 15 Girls

9th Lucy Carter 00:08:15 
78th Molly Harrison 00:09:27
87th Genevieve Weston 00:09:35 
147th Zaliah Solomons 00.10.32 
183th Dorothy Wright-Spinks 00:11:20 
191st Grace Wright-Spinks 00:11:45

Under 17 Women

8th Lily Beckford 00:12:50 
20th Yanna Raykov 00:13:39 
45th Kathleen Jackson 00:15:00 
67th Ellie Jackson 00:16:18 
96th Harriet Mackinney 00:19:13

Under 11 Boys

12th Tom Carter 00:05:55

Under 13 Boys

59th Isaac Costley 00:08:35
72nd Luke Gray 00:08:39 
164th Darius James Turner 00:09:33 
173rd Antanas Weston 00:09:39 
191st Clive Eudin London 00:10:03

Under 15 Boys

9th Johnny Naylor 00:10:56
100th Mason Dietrich 00:12:38
156th Charlie Mcqueen 00:14:56

Under 17 Men

17th James Wooldridge  00:16:44
105th Jasper Crockford 00:21:03

London Cross Country Championships round up - from Chris Hartley

17/11/12 SEAA London Cross-Country Championships, Parliament Hill

The forecast rain held off, but the new Heathside gazebo proved a popular addition to club preparations for a challenging and enjoyable afternoon all the same. Said gazebo might not be emblazoned with the club logo, like some of our competitors', but we'd probably scorn it if it were.

Once the women had got ready to race in our new luxury surroundings, they scampered round a hilly and unforgiving course to finish 4th from the 11 teams entered, behind champions Serpentine, Woodford Green, and H*ghgate. Sue Rust put in yet another fine performance to finish the 6k course 5th overall in a time of 23.27. The scorers for Heathside were completed by a fine run from Elspeth Storrar, Sarah Swinhoe, and the comeback phenomenon that is Jackie Wastell. There were plenty more strong runs amongst the 16 Heathside women who finished the race in a field of 139, especially Katharine Vinnicombe, whose recovery from injury seems to be going well. Thank you to all who turned-out to run.

The senior men had a good run, with Alex and Matt Convery battling it out to be the first Heathside runner home. In the end, Alex got the edge, to finish the punishing 10k course 28th overall in a time of 37.18, just three seconds ahead of Matt in 29th. Dan McKeown and George Stewart had a similar battle, pushing each other on to 35th and 36th respectively. These four together brought Heathside's team home in 6th place from the 24 teams taking part (not bad at all, lads), behind champions H*ghgate, Serpentine, TVH, Victoria Park Harriers and Herne Hill Harriers. Much to our credit, Heathside fielded 25 participants in the Men's race, from 279 finishers. Nice one, chaps! And congratulations to you all for coming through a challenging 10km of mud and hills, especially Howard Gold who seems to be going through a Vets 'breakthrough', finishing a fine 62nd overall, in a time of 39.08.

The early indications are that the people to beat for the Turner Shield and Lambert Trophies this season are going to be Sue Rust and Alex Galloway, both of whom showed that their early successes were no flash in the pan by leading the club's Women and Men home at Parliament Hill. Can anyone catch Sue? Is Alex going to hold off the old guard? The picture will become clearer at the next Met League race at Alexandra Palace on Saturday 15th December. I can't wait!

The official results include one or two anomalies owing to factors probably best not mentioned. Apologies if they have not all been picked-up. Alex Sweet finished 107th in 41.00. I will do my best to make sure the correct runners and times are entered into the Trophy standings. Don't worry, George.

17/11/12 SEAA London Cross-Country Championships, Parliament Hill

Men's race 10k

28th Alex Galloway 37min18sec 
29th Matt Convery 37min21sec
34th Dan Mckeown 37min56sec
35th Martin Potter 37min58sec (6th V45)
41st Alex Sweet 41min00sec
56th Simon Brown 38min51sec
62nd Howard Gold 39min08sec
68th Chris Hartley 39min18s
63rd Miron Woldemichael 39min08sec 
80th Paul Jarman 39min46sec 
101st Jonathan Hopkin 40min42sec 
102nd Andy Welshman 40min44sec
103rd Gavin Evans 40min45sec
116th Daniel Szajna (U20) 41min27sec
124th Dominic Jackson 42min11sec
132rd Pete Crockford 42min44sec 
149th J Lynch 43min21sec
162nd Rick Hewett 44min01sec
169th Melvin Wachira (U20) 44min27sec
186th T. Fancett  45min21sec
196th unidentified runner 45min39sec
203rd Paul Lemmon 46min01sec
206th Dave Walton 46min16sec
259th Izaiah Turner 51min 57sec (8th U20 )

Women's race 6k

5th Sue Rust 23min27sec 
21st Elspeth Storrar 25min24sec
26th Sarah Swinhoe 25min46sec (5th vet) 
35th Jackie Wastell 26min25sec (8th vet)
40th Fiona Alston 26min49sec
42nd Bridgit Napleton 26min58sec 
50th Claire Morrissey 27min27sec 
51st Katherine Vinnicombe 27min31sec 
59th Cathy Jeremiah 27min37sec
72nd Caroline White 28min21sec
85th Ruth Miller 28min55sec
88th Emma Grayson 29min17sec
104th Jo Irwin 30min35sec
105th Ursula Wilson 30min36sec
114th Gabi Johnson 32min11sec
132nd Alison Harrow 37min03sec